BP’s Russian joint venture is facing legal action over its “unsatisfactory” record on oil spills in Siberia.

Yuri Trutnev, the Russian Natural Resources and Ecology Minister, has ordered a lawsuit against TNK-BP in relation to damages caused by an alleged 784 accidents in the company’s pipeline system last year.

The move came a day before the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

“I ordered Rosprirodnadzor (the state ecology watchdog) to prepare a lawsuit to seek damages and offered the company [the opportunity] to lay out a plan on overhauling their pipeline system,” Mr Trutnev told a government meeting chaired